LIEUTENANT HOWISON REPORT ON OREGON, 1846 41
on insurance, and give confidence to the seamen, who now enter for a voyage to Oregon with dread, reluctance and high wages. It is not for me to anticipate the boundless spring which the vivifying influe'nce of an extended organized commerce would give to the growth and importance of this country ; its portrait has been drawn by abler hands, in books and in the Senate, but I must take leave to suggest that good policy requires the par- ent government to retain the affections of this hopeful offspring by attentions arid fostering care : it needs help at this moment ; and if it be rendered, a lasting sense of dependence and grati- tude will be the consequence ; but if neglected in this its tender age, and allowed to fight its own way to ibdependent maturity, the ties of consanguinity may be forgotten in the energy of its own unaided exertions.
Nisqually, the innermost harbor of Puget's sound, may at some future day become an important port for the exportation of produce from the north side of the river; but the inland transportation is at present impracticable for articles of more than a hundred pounds weight, on account of the mountains and water-courses. No wagon road has yet been opened from an interior point to* Nisqually. Its importance will increase with the settlement of the country around it, possessing, as it does, natural advantages exceeding those of any other port in the Territory.
Besides Fort Vancouver, six sites have been selected for towns ; of these Astoria takes precedence in age only. It is situated on the left bank of the Columbia, thirteen miles from the sea: it contains ten houses, including a warehouse, Indian lodges, a cooper's and a blacksmith's shop; it has no open ground except gardens within less than a mile of it. It may be considered in a state of transition, exhibiting the wretched re- mains of a bygone settlement, and the uncouth germ of a new one. About 30 white people live here, and two lodges of Chin- ook Indians. The Hudson's Bay Company have still an agent here, but were about transferring him over to a warehouse they are putting up at Cape Disappointment. A pre-emption
